Payment by PayPal Account or Credit Card

[trickywiki]

Hi,

Most of our customers use PayPal to pay for their purchases.

Is there any way of telling whether a customer has paid by using their PayPal account or paid by credit card using the PayPal credit card system.

I would like to know how many customer have paid by credit card rather than use their PayPal account.

Any ideas?

Cheers

[Duncan Rounding]

No, not to the merchant anyway.
Why the interest?

[trickywiki]

We initially used PayPal because it was cheap for low levels of business. Now our business has increased significantly we were considering changing our payment provider to reduce our payment costs.

However if a large percentage of our business comes though customers using their PayPal account then we'd be foolish going away from PayPal.

We were hoping to make an informed decision rather than a stab in the dark.

We agree with other forum comments that if customers have money in their PayPal account then it's easier for them to use it straight from the account rather than having to transfer it. If we knew how many transactions were paid straight from a PP account then making a decision would be easier.

[Paul Bulpit]

if customers have money in their PayPal account then it's easier for them to use it straight from the account rather than having to transfer it.

I don't entirely agree with the word 'easier' because, as a Paypal (buying) user, selling very little personally, it doesn't in fact make any difference to me, whatsoever, where they take the money from.

I *CAN* see that if you have funds in your PP account it is marginally simpler to use them rather than request a withdrawal. Maybe it depends on your type of customer.

If we knew how many transactions were paid straight from a PP account then making a decision would be easier.

Your point here I think is that PP 'seems' a bit expensive as a Payment Processor. In this case you will have to weigh up the volume of business against the costs of setting up a different PSP. Good PSP rates only come with decent transaction volumes - if your business is small you may be better off sticking where you are.

Also bear in mind - PP is just one charge. If you have to pay both PSP fees *AND* merchant fees the combination can easily exceed the original cost of using PP. Please think, and work it out, very carefully.

-oOo-

Another (bee in bonnet) consideration is, how many returns/refunds do you deal with? In a (full) refund on PP they cancel the original fee totally. (Though a partial refund is a slight bugbear). With a PSP the refund is another chargable transaction, plus as is certain types of card refund at the merchant provider.

Pedants count pennies not pounds. PP & GC have their uses given certain circumstances (as does Amazon).

[Golf Tee Warehouse]

Another (bee in bonnet) consideration is, how many returns/refunds do you deal with? In a (full) refund on PP they cancel the original fee totally. (Though a partial refund is a slight bugbear). With a PSP the refund is another chargable transaction, plus as is certain types of card refund at the merchant provider.

Not for much longer, I believe that from September Paypal charges will be changing (effecting overseas charges mainly I think) and from then on Paypal will then be retaining the fixed portion of the transaction charge i.e 20p.